ELi5 What happens when you demilitarize munitions/weapons, and why is it a thing?
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It depends a lot. Most military equipment is demilitarized in order to resell it on the private market. The process usually involves removing any distinguishing marks and either remove any weapons or make sure the weapons can not be fired any more. For example if the military have a car they want to get rid of they can remove any weapons and weapons mounts, any expensive or secret components, possibly replace lights and other items to make it road legal, then repaint it. A tank is similar but it is not practical to remove the main gun so instead they weld a plug to the barrel and possibly drill out a hole in the side of the barrel. They might also remove the breach or disable it in some way. This way a civilian can buy a tank that does not have any working weapons, most of the time it is a scrapyard buying them but there are a number of tanks driving on the streets as well.
Weapons can also be demilitarised, usually for museums and other collectors. Just like a tank gun you add metal where there should not be any and remove metal where there should be some so that the weapon can not be used again but still look complete. Similarly ammunition can be demilitarised by removing all the explosives including the primer. Again it is sold to museums and collectors. It is not that uncommon to have an artillery cartridge as an umbrella stand, flower vase or a lamp.
More advanced weapons like missiles, nukes or torpedos are also sometimes demilitarised by disassembling them. There are a few gutted weapons found in museums but all the working components have been removed.
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